Self explanatory http://www.opengl.org/discussion_boards/ubb/smile.gif what are the reasons why you chose OpenGL over DirectX. This isn't supposed one of those DX or OGL threads..I just want to know if there's a reason why ppl chose it http://www.opengl.org/discussion_boards/ubb/smile.gif
thanks

nomad82

03-21-2003, 04:58 AM

because i don't like microsoft?

satan

03-21-2003, 06:32 AM

Couldn't find D3D for Linux.

Coconut

03-21-2003, 06:38 AM

Because I don't like the name

03-21-2003, 06:45 AM

Cause i find it easyer to work with http://www.opengl.org/discussion_boards/ubb/smile.gif

yaro_dup1

03-21-2003, 06:48 AM

because Id Software is using it!

cheers,
yaro

Orzech

03-21-2003, 07:01 AM

Because "OpenGL" looks nicer than "DirectX" when you write it on the paper

paneb

03-21-2003, 07:10 AM

anyone has a real answer? http://www.opengl.org/discussion_boards/ubb/smile.gif

i mean you cant just chose opengl because it looks good on paper lol http://www.opengl.org/discussion_boards/ubb/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by paneb (edited 03-21-2003).]

stodge

03-21-2003, 07:34 AM

I prefer the API, and I didn't want to learn COM to use DirectX (I think it uses COM right?). I find it much easier to work with.

03-21-2003, 07:39 AM

It's an open standard - not controlled by one company but a consortium of companies, meaning noone can hijack it for their own ends.

It's available on the platforms I'm interested in (Win32 and Linux).

It's syntactically much nicer to read than DirectX.

There's one hell of a lot of documentation for it, much freely available on the Internet.

It's a lot more mature than DirectX.

etc etc...

paneb

03-21-2003, 07:39 AM

yea it does use COM..yea, and i have a book at home on COM, and its not that simple..lol..i am just starting opengl (trying to init. a window..whooa http://www.opengl.org/discussion_boards/ubb/smile.gif ), but i get confused sometimes as to what a function does, and then i realize it just sets up the next couple of lines..like glMatrixMode (GL_PROJECTION) for example..its very fun.. http://www.opengl.org/discussion_boards/ubb/smile.gif

ScottManDeath

03-21-2003, 07:56 AM

Hi

thats simple: some years ago I wanted to visualize vector algebra for myself and OpenGL SDK was provided with VS. It would be no fun to download a 170mb DX SDK with 56kbit ...
Now at school it just takes 2 minutes and now I can fight with (or against http://www.opengl.org/discussion_boards/ubb/wink.gif ) DX 9

Bye
ScottManDeath

03-22-2003, 04:08 AM

Oh, COM is not difficult at all. You should but use proper prog language(as Delphi). But I think OpenGL is more powerfull as D3D, it has nicer syntax and structure(the state machine - it sound just cool!). And I like API better, it's easy extendable. And say: which D3D can make full use of GeForceFX capabilities? No one. Only OpenGL2 :-)

JustHanging

03-22-2003, 04:39 AM

My primary reason was that it seemed a lot easier than direct3d. I had to start working on a 3d project and didn't have much experience so simplicity was an important issue to me. I also saw the Carmac's famous writing about how he prefers OpenGL over D3D, so that was enough for me.

-Ilkka

oliii

03-22-2003, 06:08 AM

OpenGL is dead easy. It's great for beginners, and it is sufficiently powerful for advance users. In a couple of days, with the help of glut, you can start having fun with triangles and cameras. It's multiplatform, so great for educational and research purposes. I remember learning OpenGL on Silicon Graphics platform.

The interface is much more straight forward than DX. No vertex buffers to worry about, it's a more high level approach. I like the matrix stack approach. It's a bit counter-intuitive at first, but it's very useful in the end. You can just render anything without worrying about data management, very useful for visualising debugging stuff.

I'm not very experienced with DX, but OpenGL is certainly easier on the brain for beginners. Also, it's widely supported on WWW. For more advance effects, I'll call a draw.

I just wished it supported quaternions http://www.opengl.org/discussion_boards/ubb/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by oliii (edited 03-22-2003).]

JustHanging

03-22-2003, 07:39 AM

Out of interest, how exactly would you have it support quaternions? glRotate can rotate around an arbitary axis so it's easy get that working with quaternions. And that's about all there is that's related to quaternions, unless you'd want some quaternion math functions, but then there isn't even vector math in opengl. It's a drawing API after all, not a maths library.

-Ilkka

Ninjagecko

03-22-2003, 02:41 PM

because it's cross-platform

jiangerlai

03-22-2003, 03:19 PM

cause I like the forum! Each time when I am confused, there is someone helping me.

rpxmaster

03-22-2003, 06:28 PM

Because I don't like Microsoft.

Because I want to make my code portable. I also develop on a GnuLinux environment.

Because learning DirectX is harder than hell. I'd rather stick to cross-platform standards like OpenGL.

Orzech

03-23-2003, 04:38 AM

But I still think it just looks nicer... http://www.opengl.org/discussion_boards/ubb/wink.gif

mdog1234

03-23-2003, 07:57 AM

If you take a look at directX code vs openGL code that does the same thing, you wonder why anyone would ever choose directX. If you dont know the windows api or stuff like that then openGL is better because you can use glut. By the way to the person who didnt know what a function does. I hope you are saying that you dont know what a certian OpenGL function does.

[This message has been edited by mdog1234 (edited 03-23-2003).]

paneb

03-23-2003, 08:31 AM

thats right, i was talking about an opengl function..i dod know what a c++ function is http://www.opengl.org/discussion_boards/ubb/smile.gif

HalcyonBlaze

03-23-2003, 08:47 AM

To be honest, i didn't choose OpenGL. I'm learning both OpenGL and DirectX. But i started out with OpenGL because there was so much more information out there for beginners. OpenGL is certainly easier to get started with and DirectX is a nightmare. However, I think OpenGL gets to be more work around areas like texturing (just a little bit more...but it's more fun loading your own textures).

This forum was DEFINETELY a huge factor in my learning OpenGL first. It's hard to find good help for DirectX.

- Halcyon

Edit: If you look at pure OpenGL code vs DirectX code...you'd be leaping at OpenGL and trying to burn the DirectX code at the same time. DX code looks confusing if you don't know what's happening. OpenGL function names and their parameters are like documentation in themselves.

[This message has been edited by HalcyonBlaze (edited 03-23-2003).]

prashantgp

03-23-2003, 07:17 PM

Since i dont know Directx.
OpenGL is great for begineers though i've learnt only a bit.

rpxmaster

03-23-2003, 08:03 PM

On 03-23-2003 09:47 AM, a Frequent Contributor named HalcyonBlaze made the following remark:
This forum was DEFINETELY a huge factor in my learning OpenGL first. It's hard to find good help for DirectX.

Same here. I tried looking around for good advice/support on DirectX before I decided that I didn't like it.

Is anybody familiar with the old MSDN Online User Comments, from a couple years back? It existed around the time 8.0/8.0a were considered to be new, and it was not as nice as this board is. Basically, you post a question on how to do something specific using DirectX, and everyone else replied and made fun of you. Although you got nothing out of those flame-wars, to me it was entertaining to be involved in those conversations :P

03-23-2003, 11:47 PM

Is there anything opengl can do that direct3d can't and vice versa?

HalcyonBlaze

03-24-2003, 04:11 AM

Well you can do anything with one API that you can with the other one in terms of programming. However, OpenGL is platform independent and DirectX will ONLY run on windows systems. Some things are supported natively by one API, but not the other. Which doesn't mean that both of them can't do the same thing...it's just you have to implement your own stuff in one. For example, DirectX natively supports transformations using quaternions, but OpenGL requires you to implement them.